This weekend brought a new addition to the NYCS family – a 1975 Serveta Lambretta Jet 200. Over the next few weeks I’ll be bringing you my experiences with this beast, but first a little history.

Innocenti and the birth of the Lambretta
The Innocenti Company, producer of the famous Lambretta motor scooter was born out of the company’s long history manufacturing, of all things, pipes and tubes.

Prior to the Second World War the Innocenti company, named after its founder Ferdinando Innocenti, had developed a number of patents for irrigation, oil and gas drilling, and scaffolding materials using proprietary methods for bending and shaping pipes and tubes. Later, during the war years, these manufacturing techniques were put to use to construct the tubes necessary for airplane bombs and tens of thousands of bullet shells.

After the war, with ammunition production ceased, the company needed to look to a new future. Inspired by the rudimentary utility scooters that Innocenti had seen parachuted into Rome for use by the British and American allied forces, it occurred to him that this type of transportation may have a very practical civilian use during the reconstruction of Italy following the war. Innocenti immediately set about reconfiguring the company to begin production of motor-scooters.

Innocenti unveiled its first scooter, the Model M Lambretta at the Paris Exhibition in 1948. Named after the Lambro River running through the Innocenti manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Milan, it was quickly followed by revised editions of the scooter.

The Lambretta, in all its iterations. quickly became a success that became the mainstay of the company through the 1950s and into the late 60s until Ferdinando’s death in 1966.

From scooters to cars
Around this time, as Ferdinando’s son Luigi took over the company a number of factors lead to the rapid demise of the Lambretta. Primarily, the introduction of economic cars (both cost and consumption) like the Fiat 500 meant that increasingly wealthier Italians were upgrading away from two-wheeled vehicles to their first cars. The Innocenti Company limped on in scooter production until the early 70s while it tried to find an opportunity to shift into motorcar production, something no motorcycle company had done successfully.

During these last few years, with Luigi himself now in ill health the company was sold to the British car company Leyland under the BMC badge. During a brief period Leyland produced an Innocenti badged version of the famous Mini and the Maserati coupe, the Biturbo, at the Milan factory but eventually failed to gain a foothold in the market and closed its doors for good in 1972.

Lambretta moves to India
During the dissolution of the company, the assembly line equipment was sold to the Indian government and Scooters India Ltd. (SIL.) With scooters a popular form of transportation in India, where the economy was developing behind Italy, SIL continued to produce iterations of the Lambretta, most notably, the Grand Prix until 1998. The company continues to this day producing an evolved version of the Lambro, Innocenti’s three-wheeled van.

Serveta, the Spanish Lambretta
In parallel to this history, beginning during Lambretta’s heyday, a group of Basque businessmen saw an opportunity to manufacture the Lambretta under license in Spain. The first Spanish Lambrettas rolled off the production line in the Spanish town of Eibar in 1954, making the initial Lambrettas “Eibar Lambrettas.” Ten years later; the group began operating under the new name Serveta.

In an interesting twist of fate Eibar/Serveta actually produced Lambretta scooters for a longer production run than Innocenti (part of the reason why Innocenti Lambrettas are more collectable) and ran for thirty-five years from 1954 to 1989.

Serveta Lambretta scooters made popular imports into the US and consequently are easier to find here than their Italian cousins. The Jet 200 is perhaps Serveta’s best-known scooter.

The Jet was born of the Innocenti Lambretta SX (Special Project) 200.

The SX was arguably Innocenti’s flagship scooter in one of the Italian company’s last-ditch efforts to fight rapidly declining sales by producing a luxury model with a powerful engine and a high standard of fit and finish.

1966 saw the introduction of the Serveta Jet and aside from a few minor changes it was a clone the SX200. As time went on, producing an economic scooter rather than a luxury scooter made more sense and Serveta began to make modifications to the design to lower the price tag. Most notably replacing the panel flashes worn by SXs with cheaper clip on panels with stripes and 150 (a 150cc model was introduced) or 200 lettering decals.

My Jet
I picked up my Jet 200 this weekend from a local seller in the East Village literally a block from my apartment. The bike has its original mustard livery and decals and a great patina appropriate for a bike from 1975 all huge draws for me. Another plus? A clean NYC title.

The bike, however, has two issues most likely from being left outside during the past winter without proper thought given to storage: While the bike would kick-start and run, it would only work with the choke out. This is typically a sign that the carburetor is gummed up with gasoline that has turned to emulsion during winter storage without proper fuel stabilization. (Although it can indicate a more troubling and expensive blown oil seal.) The second problem? A seized front brake, likely from rust inside the front wheel hub from a long period of disuse and plenty or rain and snow during the winter and spring.

Over the next few weeks I’ll share my experiences cleaning up the Jet and getting her back on the road.

Helpful Lambretta history links
Thanks must go for this post to the Lambretta Club of Great Britain for their fantastically detailed history of the rise and fall of Innocenti.

Cambridge Lambretta Workshops also has a nice concise history of the Lambretta.

For dedicated Serveta information, here’s a great Serveta fan site.

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